Zander always does it…. crap crap crap and then suddenly …boom… and something absolutely extraordinary come from him. The last season whatever Boston Philharmonic played (do not confuse with Boston symphony – they are different orchestras) was not good and there was no indication that the Bruckner 5 might come us as it did. This season was very not exiting with Boston Philharmonic played like a god armature band and then this Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 22. What the treat!!!

The concert lead 13 year old George Li on piano with Benjamin Zander provided phenomenal support (even though the BPO sometimes indicated that they have no orchestral juice) for this work, it is so seldom that piano and orchestra play so much together. The Saint-Saens piano concertos is not truly my cap of tea but then I heard this Li/Zander play and actually did not believe what I head and stared to listen it again. Interesting the I heard the George Li’s mini recital and he did not sound so good – it was a typical 13 year play. Here is a totally different story.

The concert took playce in October 2008 and was broadcasted today live-to-tape courtesy to WGBH. It was recorded off air via Schwarz/Pacific at 88/24. To upload for web it was a castrated to 44 and vandalized by 16 bit. The fragment might give you an idea what Li/Zander showed off. It is 92Meg. Enjoy.

Of course the Young Prodigy has to play this stuff; everyone expects it; you can hear the delight from the audience.

As for the Saint-Saens, I would certainly attend more local-orchestra concerts if there were any assurances that they would go as well. That piano play is well met by the orchestration, and young Li does not over-extend himself, nor does he withdraw; he simply is not physically strong, which is only to be expected. I don't know Zander at all, but it sounds like he is being courteous, and certainly he does not tax the orchestra at any point during the snippit. The whole of the piece here strikes me as softly Romantic, with just a dash of pop-Modernity from the orchestra to close.

All in all, I think I'd gladly pay 2nd tier money to hear it live; but I believe I'd chafe at the $80 level of expectation.

If you do not know him them you need to learn about him. It is a good conductor and a exceptional populizator of classical music. Here is the emblematic Benjamin Zander:

To get what he does and how he come along in Boston you need to buy his Mahler 9 double CD with the second disc having Mr. Zander’s commentary about the “Closet Conductors” – juts a wonderful stuff. Zander unquestionably is more interesting person then his orchestra allows him to be but sometimes they hit the right keys and do very fascinating music.

Zander had originally planned to record Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, but after performing Bruckner’s Fifth with the Boston Philharmonic last season, he realized that this would be his next recording. “It is a masterpiece of staggering proportions,” he says of Bruckner’s Fifth, “one of the greatest symphonies ever written. I had a sudden strong urge to record that.” When he began preparations for the performance with the Philharmonic, he recalled a conversation he’d had many years ago with his father, who had urged him to conduct this Bruckner symphony.

Zander’s father, in fact, had been an accomplished musician, although he never took his abilities past the amateur level. The younger Zander recalled reading letters written from his father to his paternal grandmother while the senior Zander was a young soldier in World War I. The letters from Europe to the homefront included requests that his mother send him several scores to occupy his time between military duties. “My father could hear the music in his head, almost like reading a book,” says Zander, “even though he would never be a professional musician.”

The encouragement from his father to perform Bruckner’s Fifth was the initial incentive for Zander. Once he became more familiar with the piece, he “discovered a treasure of surpassing beauty, which I wanted to share with the world,” he says. “This masterpiece is rarely performed or recorded, whereas the Shostakovich has been recorded countless times. I am hoping that through this recording and its all-important explanation disc, that we will create thousands of new fans for this great work.”

Just after the recording session, Zander told Producer Elaine Martone that “Bruckner’s time has come! Mahler is about the individual and Bruckner is about the collective.”

Anton Bruckner has been called the “Wagner of the Symphony.” His early works were mostly service music, plainly intended to praise God. When he turned to orchestral music later in life, the intent and philosophy of his sacred compositions were transferred into the newly adopted genre. In the liner notes to the new Telarc recording, Richard Rodda states that “his symphonies have often been called ‘cathedrals of sound,’ and the phrase is appropriate both for the mood that they convey and for their implication of grandeur.” Rodda adds: “a twenty-minute Bruckner symphony would be as ludicrous as the massive baldachino of St. Peter’s dropped onto the altar of the neighborhood parish church.”

“In working on the Bruckner Fifth, I became aware of how close his music is to Schubert,” said Zander, who strives in this performance to emphasize the song-like quality of the symphony. “I avoided the very slow tempi that have become common in contemporary interpretations and emphasized the sprightly, forward moving, urgency of the music.” After hearing this recording, William Carragan, the Contributing Editor, Bruckner Edition, Vienna said “this unique and magnificent interpretation and performance will be a compelling introduction to lovers of 19th Century symphonic music.” Carragan continued to say that this recording is “a totally new insight into the structure and beauty of what may be one of the finest symphonies ever written.”

Recording this momentous symphony “has been a profound and life changing experience,” says Zander. “Especially, it was a revelation to record it with the Philharmonia, only one member of which had performed the work with the orchestra before. She remembered the performance with Klemperer, in which she said the violins got lost for a whole page! The orchestra found the piece absolutely astonishing and riveting. It was a joy to introduce the work to them.”

Yes, Zander was talking about his upcoming release of the 5th with Philharmonia Orchestra. The Philharmonia is unquestionably more cable orchestra then Boston Philharmonic and it might be interesting. I hope it will not be a studio recording as it would kill everything. Also, only god knows if the “magic” that Zander cought with Boston Philharmonic will be there. I recorded off air two recordings of Boston Philharmonic playing Bruckner 5 under Zander – they both different in many ways.

Anyhow, I would not agree with Zander that Bruckner 5 is “one of the greatest symphonies ever written” as well as I degree with his view of the symphony message. But those conductors are always popup excitement before releases. Unquestionably the new Philharmonia release will be on my list to buy. In order to pump up the excitement from my end here is the Zander interview that was included into the last years WGBH live-to-tape broadcast. It is a small 4meg file of very highly compressed MP3, I hope it will be listenable.